rollercoaster - Monday, January 3 2005
huh...heard the bad news about Trey on Jan. 1, but today (Jan. 3) i heard good news about my mom's older brother finally accepting Christ after so many years. life's full of highs & lows.
just checked the weather network for the next few days here in vancouver too; next monday's sposed to be -13C!! so out of curiousity i check the same day's forecast for waterloo...+9C?! that's not right.
Warlocks & Wanderings - Tuesday, January 4 2005
drove pops to work bright n early @ 0800 in the morning so i could have a car for the day, then went home n hopped right back into bed until 1200. after eating, was about to step out the door to go down to L&M to check out what it'll cost to buy me-self a Warlock when the phone rang. it was buddy eltro (who's been working as a supervisor at a call centre d/t for quite a while now), basically asks if i can help out down there for the next few days if i'm free, cuz the centre is working w/ Red Cross to raise money for the Tsunami victims n they need ppl to man the phones. what a coincidence and what an opportunity. just last night on the news i saw ppl sending in questions about how they could help (other than financially) & the authorities were saying thanks but sorry (understandably) to ppl who wanted to volunteer manpower for the cause, as it would honestly be more of a liability than anything else to have untrained ppl go over there as they're having major problems keeping track of the Canadians that are over there already. so now i've been given an opportunity to put my sorry UW-graduate ass to use, and for a good cause.
made my way down to South Granville, checked out some stuff (guitars to be specific) & bumped into BQ. he was shopping w/ a few friends, i thought he'd already left to go back to school in Kamloops but it turns out he's not leaving till the 8th, so we'll go chill be4 then maybe. talked to some guy @ L&M bout the Warlock, gonna go check some prices @ some other shop he mentioned called Westcoast Music since L&M didn't have nething in stock @ the time. hopefully find time to do that sometime soon, along w/ making another appointment @ Fat City. after about an hour i was finished lookin' around but still had some time left to spare on the parking meter so i decided to pop into Chapters n have a look around. wound up picking up a copy of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (just the 1st book).
i'd seen someone reading it on the Skytrain way back last summer n had been meaning to check it out, but had just never gotten around to it, and so now, i finally decided to check it out, due also in part to the fact that i saw the preview for the upcoming movie based on the book just last week. should be a good read.
Wednesday/Thursday, January 5/6 2005
worked the "Chum Disaster Relief Line" @ the TigerTel office, taking donations for the Canadian Red Cross which would towards the Asian Disaster Relief Fund. day was slow to start off, good thing i had some buddies to keep me entertained during the down-time. kev was sitting beside me, n sometimes we'd swap caller stories to keep us entertained:
kev: thank you for calling the Chum Relief Distress Line, are you calling to make a donation to the Canadian Red Cross Society?
(yes)
ok, that's great, just hang on one sec...could i get your first name please sir?...
("Bob")
and your last name "Bob"?...
("NoName")
alright, so that's "Mr. NoName?"...
(Dr. NoName actually)
oh ok, "Dr. NoName." ok so how much would you like to donate today "Dr. NoName"?
($200)
ok...waitaminut...i thought you said "Dr"? that's it?! $200? c'mon "Doc", cheap bastard...
ok...so that's not exactly how it went down, but you get the idea. it was a fun day.
neway, afterwork/dinner time the calls really started pouring in, you'd hang up on one person n less than 2 seconds later you'd be on again. we barely had time to breathe for over 1/2 hr sometimes w/ calls coming in non-stop. despite getting a sore throat from all the talking, it was really great to hear ppl calling in from all over the country (we were getting calls from all over N. America, although I seem to have been spared the American callers)...even had a few callers from the "519" in K-W. overall there was just a great sense of camaraderie & goodwill that i got from the callers. why can't this happen more often? i guess this was just a glimpse of how the world could be.
oooh, all my marks finally came out on Quest, and although my lack of motivation/studying for finals was evident as i saw my final marks showed a slight dip from the average i had before exams, it doesn't matter b/c they can all go suck an egg...4 for 4, !BAM! it is finished.
o yeah, we got snow today. quite a bit
the spirit endures - Friday, January 7 2005
snowed thru the night & for most of the morning. was sposed to go catch a movie w/ a friend tonight, but just didn't feel right going n having a good time after attending Trey's memorial service today. i know he prbbly wouldn't want every1 to put their lives on hold, but i think i just needed to let some time pass. in times like these, where we've lost a loved one, it's often hard to see any joy or hope in the situation. a parent should never have to bear the burden of attending their own child's funeral. so many memories of good times in the past...
i know a lot of us looked/felt like we had come to the end of the road. but the truth is, we will smile again, we will laugh again. this is the resilience of the human spirit, and it is that knowledge that gives us hope to carry on another day. yes, the body has gone, but his spirit remains and will continue to live on through the rest of us.
big bunch of us went to catch early dinner at the Keg after, just to chill & catch up. i'm slowly learning a lot of situations have changed in the past few years. of course some things will always remain pretty much the same (more or less), but i will have to recognize the differences between what was 2.5 years ago, and what is. lotta stuff goin through my mind today...but i this isn't the place for it. find peace bro...
the 1st week of the year in a nutshell. 51 more to go...
